Trump, on his first visit to West Asia since returning to the White House, said on Wednesday that he spoke about Iran with the leader of Qatar, which maintains relations with both longtime adversaries.
“It’s been really an interesting situation. I have a feeling it’s going to work out,” Trump said of Iran after talks with the emir, Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al Thani.
“I want to make a deal with Iran. I want to do something, if it’s possible,” Trump told a summit of Persian Gulf Arab leaders in Riyadh earlier Wednesday.
However, he vowed rigorous enforcement of sanctions against Iran.
“I’m strongly urging all nations to join us in fully and totally enforcing the sanctions” imposed on Iran by the United States, he added.
The Trump administration in recent weeks has imposed sanctions on a series of entities and individuals it claims assist Iran’s oil industry and nuclear program.
Iran has held four rounds of indirect talks with the Trump administration on a replacement for the 2015 deal, which have been generally described as positive by the two sides.
In 2018, Trump walked out of a landmark agreement between Iran and several other countries that gave it sanctions relief in return for confidence-building restrictions on its nuclear activities.
He slapped sweeping sanctions on Iran, including secondary measures against any country that buys Iranian oil.
Iran now wants guarantees that the US will remove all the sanctions and won’t again unilaterally derail the new deal.
Trump, in a speech Tuesday in Riyadh, also said he favored diplomacy but leveled various accusations against Iran, including that it destabilizes the region.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi stated on Friday that he had listened to the remarks and “unfortunately, a very deceptive view has been put forward.”
